When Two Apprentices Meet Again
by Orion Blue
Summary: When Robin goes on an undercover mission as Dick Grayson in order to collect information on Terra Markov, secrets begin to unravel when Terra encounters Dick on her own and begins to speak about her apprenticeship.


**Disclaimer:** If only I owned Teen Titans.

* * *

Robin was on an undercover mission as Dick Grayson at Jump City's private high school in order to get closer to Terra who "supposedly" didn't remember ever having powers, ever being a Titan, or ever working for Slade. He had a hunch that she did remember, but didn't want to. Robin was gone from 8:00 am until 3:00 pm Monday-Friday and was having a difficult time maintaining his hero life and civilian life without the public getting suspicious and on top of all of that, it had been almost a semester since his mission started and he was getting nowhere. The only thing Dick seemed to be accomplishing was being a human punching bag for the jocks.

* * *

It was a Tuesday when Terra approached him. Dick had just sat down for lunch at a table all by himself and checked his eye for swelling from his run in with the football captain in the locker room earlier after gym. He hissed as his fingers touched his swollen eye. Dick always sat at lunch alone, he was considered the "geek" of school and was the smartest. He wished he could be back at the tower eating lunch with his friends. As Dick opened his lunch bag and saw that Starfire had attempted to make his lunch and he immediately thought he was going to puke and threw it away. Dick rested his head on his arms on the lunch table and heard his stomach growl with hunger. He was lost in his own thoughts when a girl's voice pulled him back to reality.

"He used to talk about you a lot."

Dick lifted his head to see who said that and realized it was Terra. His eyes widened in surprise that Terra had approached him. Dick's expression soon changed to confusion at her statement.

"What?" He replied.

She continued with a very serious look in her eyes.

"Slade... He used to talk about you a lot... Meet me under the bleachers at the football field after final period." She then walked back to the table where she was originally sitting.

It took all of Dick's willpower to not turn and stare at Terra as she continued eating lunch with her friends. He was absolutely dumbfounded. Did Terra just mention Slade to me? Slade as in the Titans arch nemesis? Also, the fact that she said something about him talking about me? It was going to be a long rest of the day.

* * *

Finally after what seemed like forever, the final bell rang and Dick made his way to the football field's bleachers. He was extra careful not to run into any of the jocks for the fear of missing Terra and ending up with another black eye. When he was situated under the bleachers he pulled out his communicator and made a quick call to Raven saying he would be getting home an hour later than usual do to a student asking for help on an upcoming math test. He knew it was a lie but he didn't want anything getting compromised and would fill them in if all went well. As soon as he safely tucked the communicator back in his backpack he heard footsteps on the bleachers. Terra slipped through one of the spots in between the rows about 40 feet away from where Dick was sitting. When she saw him a look of fear crossed her face as she slowly crept over to him. She said,

"You look so much younger without your mask."

Dick scowled at this and looked at her.

"I knew you remembered us."

She just nodded.

He then asked,

"How did you know it was me?"

Terra replied,

"Robin, when I worked with Slade he made me research all of you, I know all of your secret identities... And when Dick Grayson started to attend the same school as Terra Markov just out of the blue, it wasn't too hard to figure out why you were here."

Dick who obviously wanted to drop the subject about secret identities changed the subject by asking,

"Why didn't you just tell us? Why didn't you say you remembered and said you just didn't want to be a part of this life anymore?"

Terra replied softly,

"I didn't want to hurt anyone else."

Robin looked at her compassionately and replied,

"Terra I forgive you. I know how you feel. I've been in the same situation and to be honest I still think about it every day. I still have nightmares about him."

Terra looked at him with tear filled eyes and said,

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have trusted him... I just wish I would have come to you guys sooner."

Robin just nodded his head and sat silently for a couple of moments. He finally spoke up saying,

"At lunch you said Slade used to talk about me... What do you mean?"

Terra replied,

"Back when I was Slade's apprentice, he used to talk about you. He would tell me stories about your apprenticeship and how much power you had. He would talk about how stubborn and angry you were with him. He told me your weaknesses so I could take you out. He said if I took out the people you love I could break you."

Robin was silent and Terra continued,

"One day I asked Slade, why Robin? Why not another villain? His answer wasn't as simple as I thought. He started saying what I assumed was the answer, that he saw something in you that was different from anyone, that you were strong and powerful. But he didn't stop there. He continued saying that he had other people on his list that could have been other options, but when he saw you and how stubborn and hard you were to break, he made it seem like a challenge. A challenge to break the loyal and famous Boy Wonder. He wanted to show The Batman and the rest of the world that he could do whatever he wanted. He wanted to show heroes that he could break you and turn you into his successor."

Terra turned and look at Robin, he was in utter shock. He finally spoke up saying,

"He said that?"

Terra nodded.

"That bastard! He didn't just want to prove that he could control me... He wanted to show Batman that he won!"

Terra just nodded. After minuets of silence she continued,

"I realized when I was his apprentice that I wouldn't be his successor, I was just his weapon and I was being used to get to you."

Robin looked at her confused,

"What?"

Terra looked at him with the most serious face he had ever seen her make, she continued,

"I know that Slade is back, I knew he came back from the dead. He paid a visit to me. I tried my hardest to beat him but it wasn't enough. While we were fighting, he nearly killed me. I'm sorry I couldn't take him down."

Robin looked at her compassionately,

"Don't be. I totally understand."

She started to cry again,

"No Robin, you don't because when I encountered him we had a conversation. He started to mock me about how weak I was. I tried to keep my cool but finally lost it when he said that it was such a shame to have not succeeded with his second apprentice and that maybe the third one would be the charm. I started screaming at him for everything he had done to us and I told him I would personally make sure he never would put another person through the same treatment he put you and me through."

Terra stopped talking for a moment to get her bearings together and Dick took the opportunity to ask her a question that was on his mind.

"When did your encounter with Slade happen?"

She replied through sobs,

"Last week."

At that moment Dick finally realized that he and Terra had a connection, not only had him and Terra served under Slade's control, but each of them had suffered greatly from it. Dick put his hand on Terra's shoulder and asked softly,

"How did he react? I don't mean to push you but I need to know if he is planning to attack another individual."

Terra had finally calmed down enough to talk again and looked up at Dick with tear stricken eyes and replied,

"That's just the thing though, what he said next caught me off guard. He said that he didn't want a new child to manipulate, he wanted one of his previous. At that point he had me pinned to the ground and my heart started to beat faster and I dared to ask the question. Me? He laughed that awful laugh of his and said that he wouldn't waste the time of day to train such a failure. He told me he wanted you. Robin, the original, the perfect apprentice. He said that it was always you who was perfect for the role and he vowed to me that he would make that statement true once more."

I sat there in complete shock. Slade still wanted me as his apprentice. Robin not wanting to ask more about what Slade said about him but needing to know how Terra managed to get away from him asked,

"How did you get away from him?

Terra looked back at Dick and replied,

"I didn't, after he told me about wanting you as his apprentice, he started to mock me again and continued to beat me. After what seemed like forever I finally screamed out in pain asking why he wouldn't just go ahead and kill me. He replied that he would rather see a failure such as myself crumble and die from the weight and shame she carries on her shoulders."

At this point one would think that it was nearly impossible for Dick to hate Slade any more than he did. But Slade seemed to fill in another space on Robin's Reasons for Hating Slade List, which was already packed full and was overflowing. He replied to Terra's comments by saying,

"Terra, I'm so sorry, I'm not sure about anything anymore when it comes to Slade. He gets in my head so easily. I don't even know how to help you. I'm sorry.

Terra looked at him with sincerity and told him,

"Don't be. Although one thing you could do to help me out is, have you and your team stay away from me. The whole hero thing just isn't for me and I don't want to get wrapped up in it again. The best thing for me is to just live a normal life. Thank you Robin, for everything you guys have done for me."

Robin nodded as if he understood and stood up, while getting up he started shuffling through his book bag as if he were looking for something. He smiled as if to say he had found what he was looking for and handed something to Terra. It was one of the Teen Titan's communicators. He placed it in her hand and looked her in the eyes and said,

"Keep this no matter what you decide what you want to do with your life and remember, if there is ever trouble, you know who to call."

Terra nodded her head in understanding and with that I started to walk home, to Titans Tower.

* * *

The memories from that encounter never left me and I didn't make the same mistake twice, I told the Titans and we have been ready for Slade's attack ever since.


End file.
